THE International Cheese Awards once again smashed records with competitors from 27 countries battling it out for Supreme Champion status.

The competition, now in its 116th year, saw 283 categories in all with Claxstone Smooth Blue, produced by Long Clawson Dairy, taking the coveted title ahead of 4,286 other competitors.

A panel of expert judges from the dairy industry judged an Extra Creamy Gorgonzola, produced by Arrigoni, as the Nantwich Reserve Supreme Champion and Belton Cheese won the National Westminster trophy for the highest number of gold awards. Marks & Spencer won the Supreme Retailer Award.

Janice Breedon, marketing manager at Long Clawson Dairy, said the team was delighted with the award.

“You always hope but you never believe until it happens,” she added.

“It’s only been on the market for about a year. It was launched in Waitrose in August and for it to now get this accolade is brilliant.

“Hopefully we can return next year and retain the award.”

Awards chairman Richard Paul, who has led the awards for six years, said: “All the category winners and runners up, can now feature a gold, silver or bronze International Cheese Awards label on their pack.

“We will now be continuing to work hard to educate consumers on what that logo means – that if they spot it they can be safe in the knowledge that the product has been judged, by experts, as outstanding.”

German Montagnolo Affine, a blue cheese produced by Kaserei Champignon and imported by Elite Imports Ltd, was last year’s Supreme Champion.

Speaking about this year’s winner, Richard said: “It’s another blue and the runner up is a blue – it seems to go in waves with the winners.

“We had entries from Canada, America, Australia this year and all of continental Europe was represented.”

He added: “It’s been great to see some new faces with the chefs this year and brilliant to have someone (Will Holland) who is fairly local to the show.”

Hatherton-based Joseph Heler Cheese once again saw huge success in the awards after entering more than 100 cheeses from its portfolio.

Among its awards was a gold and silver for its low fat cheese, a gold for its mature cheddar cheese, a gold and bronze for its Cheshire cheese, a gold and bronze for its Caerphilly cheese and a gold for its mature Red Leicester.

David Wells, Joseph Heler category manager, said: “We are really pleased and we had a really nice spread of results.

“We are always hopeful when we enter a show and an awful lot of preparation goes into it with a big team effort involved. The awards are a reflection of the work we have put in and we always want to be consistent.

“This is our local show and it’s on our doorstep and we are proud to be part of it and associated with it.”

Helers also picked up numerous awards at the recent Cheshire and Yorkshire shows.

“As a whole we’ve had a really good show season,” added David.

David Williams Cheese, which manufacturers its products at Crewe Hall Enterprise Park and has a shop in Sandbach, also picked up awards, claiming two silver, two bronze and also achieved a ‘very highly commended’ for another of its products.

Despite not performing quite as well as in previous years, cheese maker Daniel Williams said he was still pleased with the results: “We will definitely be hopeful when we return next year and we are always coming up with new ideas for cheeses. We’ve just launched a pina colada cheese and a tequila cheese and no doubt we will be entering them in next year’s awards.

“It’s always good to get awards and results, no matter what they are for and how many there are.

“It’s also good to get feedback about them and what the judges like.”

Elsewhere, Crewe-based Fayrefield Foods picked up a silver for its vegetarian Cheddar and a gold for its Jersey ice cream.

Reaseheath College was also ‘very highly commended’ for a cheese made by one of its students and Cheerbrook Farm picked up a gold for its flavoured yoghurt, silver for its natural yoghurt and was named overall winner in the flavoured yoghurt category.

The Nantwich Cheese Company also saw success, winning a gold for its smoke flavoured hard cheese.

Trophy winners – page 36.

For the full list of winners visit www.internationalcheeseawards.co.uk.